Over the course of the last 5 years, CHAI 3D has grown to become one of the most popular open-source multi-platform haptics rendering frameworks, and has been used in a large number of research and production projects, in such diverse areas as games, simulators, educational software, interactive art, scientific visualization, and medical applications.

Written in C++, CHAI 3D has been designed to make it easier and more intuitive for developers to produce applications that combine 3D modelling with force-feedback rendering capabilities. By supporting many commercial haptic interfaces, CHAI 3D offers a unique interface to easily link your applications with any supported haptic device connected to your computer.

Support for third party components is achieved through well organized extension modules that independently expand the capabilities of the CHAI 3D core foundations. Extension modules include for instance support for the ODE and GEL dynamics engines for simulating rigid and deformable bodies in real time.

The CHAI 3D framework is currently supported under the Windows, Mac OS-X and Linux platforms both in 32-bit and 64-bit editions.